EKURHULENI – DA Shadow MMCs awarded scores across all 10 portfolios, on a performance based scale of a fail, a 30 per cent pass and a 70 per cent pass or a distinction in certain areas.
DA Leader, Fortune Mahano, failed the Mayor outright as he had not managed his cabinet successfully nor impressed in his individual capacity.
Service delivery across the board was hugely problematic, borne out by protest action and alarmingly regular power and water outages across the Metro.
The DA described the mayor’s performance as ‘dysfunctional’. The DA said in a statement, “The mayor was kept afloat by officials in spite of him, not because of him. Service delivery across the board was hugely problematic, borne out by protest action and alarmingly regular power and water outages across the Metro.”
The DA in Ekuruleni said, wasteful expenditure were as high as ever with no evidence of any attempt on his part to tighten the belt on extravagant spending, including overseas and domestic travel, luxury accommodation, subsistence allowances and catering for politicians and senior personnel.
According to the opposition party, “He was out of touch with Ekurhuleni’s people, his speeches in Council ranging in tone from mocking and racist to patronising and rhetorical, depending on whom he was addressing. He could not be pinned down to account for any issues put to him by councillors.”
MMC for Finance, Moses Makwakwa, and the Chair of the committee, Neil Diamond, the DA’s Shadow MMC, Eddie Taylor, said that both the councillors passed although Diamond’s was a condoned pass.
Having made no major blunders, Makwakwa scored a 30 per cent pass due to a falling revenue collection rate and having allowed the loss of key expertise from Ekurhuleni’s Finance Department.
DA’s Shadow MMC, Eddie Taylor, said that both the councillors passed although Diamond’s was a condoned pass.
Taylor said Diamond had made significant strides to becoming an even-handed chairman. However, his pass was conditional because he had failed to lead the committee in executing its strategic plan for the year, missed too many meetings and hadn’t arranged a single oversight visit to the department’s trouble spots.
The DA’s Refiloe Nt’sekhe failed MMC for Health and Social Development, Makhusazana Maluleke, saying that while her performance on health had been average she had failed the neediest communities by neglecting the social development side of her portfolio.
Nt’skhe said, “Simple matters such as filling vacant positions and shortages of basic equipment, such as gloves in the health sector should not be allowed to continue and are relatively simple fixes for what could become large problems.
“Non-functioning youth centres and a lack of community-based projects meant that the Metro was blatantly ignoring the needs of the disabled and jobless.”
Nt’sekhe gave oversight committee chair, Clr Nocawe Mafu 70 per cent pass for the hard work with a brilliant researcher to scrutinise every aspect of the entire department.
Both the MMC and Chairperson of Community Safety, Clr Mthuthuzeli Siboza and Vivian Chauke respectively, were awarded only a 30 per cent pass.
DA’s spokesman, Michael Basch, says, “Both councillors had ensured that the oversight committee ran well and that the DA was heard.”
While he conceded that they took action on problems such as underperformance of the fire station contractors, they had received an abysmal pass because they had accepted poor and inadequate reporting from the top EMPD structures to the committee, which did not reflect the realties on the ground.
Both councillors should have cracked the whip with Heads of Department, whose officials had, at times, treated the committee with contempt.
DA City Planning and Economic Development Spokesman, Heather Hart, passed both MMC Bennett Nikani and committee chair, Mahlomola Mabote, with 30% for their efforts.
Hart said, “Both councillors should have cracked the whip with Heads of Department, whose officials had, at times, treated the committee with contempt.
“The poor pass mark was directly attributable to the department’s lack of success in creating an enabling environment for increased job creation and investment.”
Bill Rundle, the DA’s spokesman on Roads and Transport, said that residents just needed to look around the Metro to see that the MMC was failing dismally. Rundle believed that MMC Thumbu Mahlangu had a sorely limited knowledge of what was actually happening in his domain.
He said, “The tragedies in Terrace Road in Edenvale were indicative of how Clr Mahlangu did not drive issues that need urgent resolution. By contrast, Chair Pinky Mkhonza had only been in charge for a few months and yet had passed with flying colours.
“She did not allow party politics to affect her decisions and had on many occasions forced officials to comply with the rules that governed oversight.”
The chair of the environmental development portfolio, Sonja Kraai, was also given a distinction by DA Shadow MMC, Tracey Butler.
She said, “Clr Kraai ran a tight ship and took portfolio members, officials and the MMC to task when necessary.
“MMC Vuyelwa Mabena however failed dismally as the DA says not enough is being done to protect the Metro’s Wetlands, the Solid Waste department is overcome with challenges and problems and for failing to create employment by initiating a proper recycling program which would see Ekurhuleni rise from the abysmal 0.86 per cent recycling to the country’s benchmark of 20 per cent.
Shadow MMC for Water and Energy, Bruna Haipel, has passed MMC Aubrey Nxumalo and Chair Victor Chiloane with 30 per cent.
Haipel reported, “Like so many other portfolios, Clr Chiloane could be a far more effective chair if he took charge and held officials and the MMC to account.
“Nxumalo was well spoken and while he often praised the work being done in Cape Town by the DA-run Metro he was not able to implement these tried and tested strategies here.”
Moreover, she said the MEC’s rapid response to the DA’s call for proper toilets to be installed everywhere by hosting a quickly arranged sanitation workshop last year had come to naught.
